The latest episode WWE Raw, which premiered this past Mon,. July 27 from Los Angeles, did not get high marks online. It’s sometimes hard to gauge whether a crowd is actually not making much noise or if the building a show’s in has weird acoustics when configured for televised pro wrestling, but the Intuit Dome audience did not seem terribly engaged at times — and seemed totally checked out at others.
According to the latest edition of WrestleVotes Radio, if the crowd in L.A. did love the show, the Netflix
executives among them did not.
According to Fightful Select, which hosts WrestleVotes Radio, Votes’ WWE sources told them “several people within WWE’s creative department are feeling increased pressure following this week’s episode of Raw, which carried extra weight internally due to the attendance of Netflix executives.”
Those sources specifically pointed out that the Danhausen/Joe Hendry segment “missed the mark”, which I doubt anyone at WWE needed to be told. It also seems fans weren’t the only ones unhappy to see bigot and/or edgelord Ryan Garcia. Votes heard that “Garcia’s appearance and involvement was considered to be underwhelming and unnecessary given his recent controversies.”
Last but not least, the opening segment with Brock Lesnar and Oba Femi was singled out on WrestleVotes Radio, with Paul Heyman’s microphone issues and the botched Fall From Grace spot in particular used as examples of the “bad look” Raw gave to the Netflix execs.
That the blowback from fans didn’t prompt these reports is more confirmation about who matters in the TKO era, methinks.
Our next item is likely more a product of Netflix’s desire to keep Raw a PG show even if all of their WWE offerings aren’t, but I can’t imagine they’re thrilled they had to pay to edit this week’s show for something other than unplanned blood.
What’s especially interesting about the focus on the opening segment is that man over Femi’s shoulder in the tweet thumbnail. According to a PWInsider item in our latest Rumor Roundup, Triple H was “very much” in charge of what happened during that segment, even calling audibles while Femi battled the security guard extras in the ring with them.
If the Chief Content Officer one of the “several people” sweating this week?
Let us know what you make of all this in the comments below, or share a more detailed take in The Feed!
